Pirate Bay hack exposes user data

4 million email addresses compromised

A hack attack on the Pirate Bay has seen the site's user data compromised, with millions of email addresses now in the hands of hackers.

The attack was co-ordinated by malware researcher Ch Russo who explained the reasoning behind targeting the site on his blog.

"As any other website, as any other system or mechanism, www.thepiratebay.org has robust parts and soft spots," notes Russo.

"We beleive [sic] that the people behind this comunity [sic] always acted with the local laws on their side, and so have we.

"The community caused problems to huge companies and corporations which turned into threats between this companies and them.

Don't look hack in anger

Russo continues: "What we have done, we did not do it with anger, or for commercial value. As always, we saw the change, the moment and decided to take it. The protocol or procedure done to achieve this wasn't anything out of the ordinary."

Although he says that obtaining this rather sensitive information – emails and usernames – was not for commercial reasons, any number of film companies or music outlets would definitely be interested in gaining access to the pirate bounty.

The site's weakness has apparently been fixed since the hack, although Russo still hasn't contacted the Pirate Bay regarding his motives.